New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1887-07-13
not wish to go into q house for fools or

PREFER TIE GUILLOTNE.
I will tell you every thing. I killed this
man and this woman, as I've already
admitted, and killed them because they
were my father and my mother. Now,
listen to me and judge me. Once upon
time and not long ago. a woman gave
birth to q son and sent him away to be
nursed, knowing only into what coun-
try her accomplice had carried the in
nocent little being CONDEMNED to eter-
nal misery, the shame of llegitimacy.
yes, more than that-to death, for the
nurse to whom they had abandoned
him, failing to receive her monthly sti-
pend, cast him out to perish. to suffer
with hunger, to die of neglect. But
the women found and rescued me, for
[ acas that child; was honest, far
more honest, Womanly and loving
than she who was really my mother.
She cared for me and brought me up,
though it would have been infinitely
better had she left me to perish-me the
miserable outcast, thrown into the out
skirts of the village common, as they
throw the rest of the refuse and the
filth.
and grew up with the vague inn
preston that [ carried about ME a
stain a something to be ashamed of.
One day one of the other children
called me bastard He did not, it is
true, know the meaning Of the word,
caught from the lips of the Oldest ones
at home, nor at the time did ], but in
stinctiyely. as it were, I understood
and felt the insult. I was, though
say it myself, one of the most intelli-
gent scholars of the school, and I would
have been, Mons. President, an honest,
perhaps a superior man. had not nv
parents committed the crime of aban-
doning me. | was the victim: they the
culprits; [ was defenseless.
THEY WITHOUT PITY;
And when needed them most they re-
jected me. l owed them, it is true, the
gift of life. but was life such as mine a
boon to be thankful for? No; it was
a misfortune, and after the shameless
ness OF my abandonment did I owe
them aught but vengeance, vengeance
for an act the most inhuman, infamous
and monstrous, that it is possible for
one being to perpetrate against anoth-
er
"a man insulted returns the blow /;
a man robbed, retakes his. goods by
force If necessary; a man deceived,
played with and martyrized, kills a
man dishonored and slapped in the
face, kills also. [ was more than de-
ceived slapped in the face, robbed and
dishonored, proyocations, all of them,
which the law admits to be punishable.
But am avenged, for I have killed
them-taken from them. as it was my
legitimate right to take from them,
their life of happiness in exchange for
the shameful 1one which they had i'm
I posed upon me. You speak of it as
parricide, but can you call them par
ents, those people to whom was a
burden intolerable, spot of infary
to whom my birth was a calamity, nv
life a constant menace of shame
They yielded to selfish pleasure they
found Nemesis. But for all that, and /
say it truthfully, I was prepared and
ready to love them.
1T is two years, as I have told you,
since that man. my father, entered my
place for the first time I suspected
| nothing. He came ostensiblY to order
some furniture; but he had learned my
history from the Cure-I learned this
later on-under the seal of the pro
foundest secrecy. He returned fire.
quently, always bringing me work to
do for him, and paying well. sAt the
same time he talked little of one
thing or another, and soon
| BEGAN TO FEEL AN AFFECTION
For him. At the beginning of the year
| he brought his wife with him. nv
| mother. When she entered she trem-
bled so violently that supposed her to
| be the victim of some nervous malady.
FL gave her a seatSand a glass of water,
| but she never spoke. save to answer
| yes. or no. as my father appealed to
| her, and looked about her in a fright
'ened, beWildered way. When she de
parted I truly believed her little GRAZ
ed.
The following month. however they
returned-she calm and perfect mis-
tress of herself. They remained that
! day long enough to chat awhile, and to
give me the details of an order Twas te
fill for them Immediately. They came
in this way three or four times. still
without my suspecting anything. Al
last. one day she began to question me
of my childhood and my parents.
My parents, madame I replied
with bitterness, were miserable
Wretches who abandoned me.
| eat my words, she staggered. turn
ed pale, and, with a low moan, fell te
the floor unconscious. Their, and ther
only, OWNED the truth. 1t was my
mother. Yes I said to myself, m,
mother; but I must be careful not t.
let her see that I suspect it, [ wished
to see if she would come again; also
what she intended to do
I'm the mean time sought for in
formation myself, and learned tha1
Mons. and his wife had been mar
RED in July of the preceding year
that my mother was widow Of three
years standing at the time of the mar
riage, and that
! GOSSIP HAD CONNECTED HER MAIZE
i With that of nv father. her presen